No Party at the Cultural Plaza - Amendment 4 Advocates defend rights

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As we were standing on the public sidewalk near the street on Lake Avenue in front of the Cultural Plaza, Amy Saleeby walked from the beer garden over to us. She is in charge of what used to be called Evening on the Avenues and I believe that she uses this area free of charge with the idea of attracting people to the downtown and of course, making money. She says she doesn't make any money and in fact it is all money going out of her pocket--She loves Lake Worth. She asked if we would move to the other side of the street. She did not want us in front of "her" event. She was right in all of our faces for at least 10 minutes. In the middle of her altercation, I finally walked away to pet one of the adopted dogs that was on display...much more friendly experience.

After saying “no,” that it was a public street and that we had the right to stand on it, she called the Sheriff. Who knows what she said to him because one of the first things he said was--he didn’t want any trouble and would kick us out if there was. Standing on a street these days can be trouble...with 3 senior citizens and one getting close. When he arrived, some young gal came on the scene to complain that we were making her “feel uncomfortable.” I asked her who she was as we had not talked to her, did not know her and had never seen her. As it turns out it was a young woman working with Ms. Saleeby. That is a pic of her being stupid in the lower right corner.

We were there for about 70 minutes last evening. After dinner at Too-Jays, we walked over to Amy’s “event” to see what was going on. I ran into Commissioner Mulvehill and spotted Commissioner Golden. As I was talking with Jo-Ann Golden, the same young woman was close by and said twice again, “you are making me uncomfortable.” I then decided she was trying to provoke an incident and decided to leave.

Now, this is a city that is my home. These are public streets. This is our Constitutional right to be there. We caused no problem and it did not distract from Amy’s “event.” They tried to use the old tactic when it was Lake Worth Police and Ramiccio was in charge of Evening on the Avenues. Back then, Ramiccio and Nadine Burns called SWAT on us. We were in front of Fed Ex and even had the owner's permission to be in front of his store. It did not matter to the LW Police. The PBSO Deputy last night understood our right to be there.

I liked this when it was called Evening on the Avenues--a name around for years and one that is well known. The Event is now called Party in the Plaza. It was no "party" other than a little harassment by someone trying to impose her will on Lake Worth citizens who have the legal right to be on a city sidewalk invoking their First Amendment Right .